By Rusty Rae
This story begins nearly 200 years ago when Ewing Young, mountain man, pathfinder, trapper and Oregon’s first distiller, carved a trail from his home in Tennessee through the Midwest to New Mexico and then the Oregon Territory between 1831 and 1837 at his death. His spirit lives on today at the Ewing Young Distillery located four miles west of Newberg on Highway 240, where Young is buried under a giant, 172co-year old oak tree.
Distillery owners Bev and Doug Root escaped corporate life to develop their Ewing Young brand nearly a decade ago, opening the tasting room in September of 2018. Through a series of blended spirits inspired by the Ewing Young’s westward exploration, the smooth sipping whiskies tell the historical story of the man without whom Oregon might not have become a state.
Doug’s brother purchased the farm that hosted Ewing Young original and the first Distillery of Oregon, not realizing it was a historical site until sometime later. One day Doug’s brother told him Mark Hatfield (retired US Senator from Oregon) had visited the farm about something historical on the farm. When Doug investigated, he found Ewing Young’s [EJ1] headstone under the massive oak tree. He and Bev became entranced with the story.
Inspired by the Ewing Young legend, there was no holding back the couple: They spent uncountable hours researching Young’s history. Bev went to distillation school in Louisville, Kentucky, and then the adventure really began. They began to trace the route that Young took on his way West and that’s when they began finding numerous familial connections along the trail.
Family roots popped-up all along the trail Young took to the West Coast, from Tennessee to Indiana, Missouri to New Mexico and New Mexico to Oregon. These many connections gave the Roots a sense of destiny to their journey, a spiritual connection. As a part of their branding they trademarked the phrase “Metaphysics in a bottle”.
At various stopping places along the trail, the Roots also found, craft distillers. Currently, they’ve sourced from two distilleries, but more from the Ewing Young trails are planned for the future.
“We won’t take just any barrel of whiskey — we’re looking for distillers with outstanding product,” Doug notes.
Bev and nephew Tucker Morteensen (who’s also responsible for distillation and blending) have spent time blending whiskey from the Ewing Young trail distilleries, bottling three blends of whiskies and a single bottle of vodka.
“It’s what ends up in the bottle that is most important,” Bev adds. “Having a quality product and also one that embodies the story we are telling with the Ewing Young brand.”
A visit to the tasting room provides the full story and shares how, through exclusively blending and aging whiskies now, the Newberg distillery is also on the path to distilling their own spirits in a small, 53-gallon single column still.
“We are going to distill our own whiskey this year but we will always be blending spirits from other distillers along the trail,” Bev says. “That’s a part of our brand story. We’re very passionate about our history and that is a part of the experience of coming to the tasting room.”
Priority right now is on the blending and barrel-aging process: Bev and Tucker, a Cordon Bleu trained chef (in Paris), have found using Oregon white oak and French oak barrels is key to their process. “I think it’s the way we finish these blends that makes the difference,” Bev adds.
At the tasting room, there are four rounds to a tasting flight: an Idaho Russet potato vodka, a rye mash whiskey, a barley and caramel malt whiskey and the Oregon Heritage Oak bourbon.
A spirit to note is the barley and caramel malt whiskey: put to rest in used bourbon barrels in 2014 and finished in Oregon and French oak, this 99.5 proof limited edition single malt is a favorite among those visiting the tasting room. The spirit is distilled from 85 percent malted barley and 15 percent caramelized malted barley, bringing a subtle yet mosaicked flavor, including cinnamon, vanilla, and caramel.
“All of our brown spirits are from Indiana, but there was a limited amount of the caramelized-barley spirits,” Bev says. “When its gone — its gone.”
Visit the tasting room to hear the story of Ewing Young and birth of Oregon. Then take home a bottle of Ewing Young spirits to taste it yourself. You’ll find metaphysics have never been softer.
[EJ1]Why did he do this? Just out of curiousity or after finding out it was a historial site, maybe?